Des Knaben Wunderhorn, the anthology of German folk poetry published at the start of the 19th century, was the most important literary influence on the young Gustav Mahler, and the musical settings he made of the texts permeated his early symphonies.
A recording of those songs makes an obvious supplement to Riccardo Chailly's symphonic cycle, and it shares the same qualities of vivid characterisation, superb orchestral playing and a wonderful sense of how the music should be presented.
Chailly has aimed at matching each song with the voice type for which it is thought to have been written, so that although the soprano Barbara Bonney and baritone Matthias Goerne take the bulk of the numbers - he sometimes fiercely combative, she lyrically adroit - one, Urlicht, is delivered by the fine mezzo Sara Fulgoni, and another, Revelge, by the late, much missed tenor Gosta Winbergh.
No one following Chailly's Mahlerian pilgrimage need hesitate.
